Launch Date: 16 February 2015
Respond by: 5pm, 11 March 2015
Keeping Children Safe in
Education
Informal Consultation
Keeping Children Safe in
Education
Informal Consultation
This consultation seeks views on the Department for Education proposed
amendments to Keeping Children Safe in Education statutory guidance.
Issued: 16 February 2015
Enquiries to: Neneh Binning on 01325 735545 or
email: [email protected]
Summary
The Department for Education Safeguarding in Schools Team is the custodian
of Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance (KCSIE).
KCSIE is statutory guidance. Schools and colleges must have regard to it
when considering the arrangements that they must put in place to ensure that
their functions relating to the conduct of the school or college, are exercised
with a view to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children who are
pupils or students at the school or college.
The guidance was published in April 2014. Since then, through
correspondence and stakeholder meetings, it has come to our attention that
the current guidance requires some technical and clarification amendments.
We are running an informal consultation on these technical and clarification
amendments and have identified you as a key stakeholders in our work. If you
know of any interested party that would like a chance to comment on the
changes please direct this email on to them with the attached documents.
We are seeking your views on the proposed technical and clarification
amendments we have captured in the Technical and Clarification
Amendments table attached at Annex A. The current guidance can be found
here.
Due to the tight timescales the informal consultation period will run from the
16th February 2015 until 5pm 11th March 2015. We will then work to publish
the revised guidance by the 20th March 2015.
We are considering whether KCSIE should apply to maintained nursery
schools. Please see Question 5.
Please note that the Department has recently concluded a consultation on
‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’. Colleagues are currently analysing
responses and where appropriate we will make any necessary changes to
KCSIE.
The Safeguarding in Schools team will not be changing policy at this stage.
Policy changes require wider formative consultation and with the timelines we
are adhering to this will not be possible in this Parliament. We have therefore
planned to undertake a wider consultation to look at the policy changes that
are required, in the next Parliament.
Please can you provide your responses by 5pm 11th March 2015 to our
designated mailbox at: [email protected].
Information Provided
Information provided in response to this consultation, including personal
information, may be subject to publication or disclosure in accordance with the
access to information regimes, primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000
and the Data Protection Act 1998.
If you want all, or any part, of your response to be treated as confidential,
please explain why you consider it to be confidential.
If a request for disclosure of the information you have provided is received,
your explanation about why you consider it to be confidential will be taken into
account, but no assurance can be given that confidentiality can be
maintained. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT
system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on the Department.
The Department will process your personal data (name and address and any
other identifying material) in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998,
and in the majority of circumstances, this will mean that your personal data
will not be disclosed to third parties.
Please tick if you want us to keep your response confidential.
Reason for confidentiality:
Name: Euan Holloway
Please tick if you are responding on behalf of
your organisation.

Name of Organisation (if applicable): The Children’s Society
Address: Edward Rudolf House, Margery Street, London, WC1X 0JL
Questions and Responses
Question 1
Do you agree with the technical and clarification
changes proposed in the table?
Response:
Part 1
Paragraph 25 (Specific safeguarding issues) – the guidance would
benefit from inserting a reference and link to the statutory guidance on
Children who run away or go missing from home or care and/or
Children missing education: statutory guidance for local authorities in
the list of issues.
Children who runaway are at increased risk: our Still Running 3 report
found that one in four children who go missing find themselves in a
risky situation such as sleeping rough, becoming involved in drugs and
alcohol or being abused or exploited.
Our Lessons to Learn report found that there are clear links between
children being absent from education and running away from home or
care. In addition, problems at school often contribute to running away
episodes. The report found that school staff can play an important role
in identifying children who are running away and ensuring they receive
an appropriate safeguarding response.
Part 2
Yes
Part 3
Yes
Part 4
Yes
Question 2
Do you foresee any problems with implementing
these changes?
Response:
Part 1
No
Part 2
No
Part 3
No
Part 4
No
Question 3
Are there any other changes including policy
changes that you would like the department to
consider in the next Parliament?
Response:
No response.
Question 4
We invite stakeholders to consider and comment on
the content and clarity of the flowchart on page 7 of
Part 3 of the guidance in particular whether you
consider the flowchart to be a useful tool?
Response:
We feel this flow-chart could be improved by adding detail to the footnote accompanying the
‘consideration’ box.
Specifically, the footnote should promote the use of a Common Assessment Framework (CAF)
as an early assessment tool. The CAF – which is promoted as an early help tool in the Working
Together Guidance - ensures a common language for assessment purposes, which gives a
consistent view for delivering the most appropriate response. It provides a means for
practitioners in all agencies working with children to communicate and work more effectively
together.
The footnote could be amended as follows: after ‘there should be an inter-agency assessment’
add ‘such as the Common Assessment Framework (CAF).’
Question 5
We are considering whether KCSIE should apply to
maintained nursery schools. Do you agree that it
should?
Response:
No response.
How to Respond
Please answer the questions in the table above.
Please email your completed response to:
[email protected]
Or, send by post to:
Neneh Binning
Safeguarding in Schools Team
Department for Education
Level 3
Bishopsgate House
Feethams
Darlington
DL1 5QE